Submitted by Mark Richardson (not verified) on April 19, 2007 - 19:20.
There has been lots published on various blogs about this recent study. While I have not read everything there to read on this report and have just seen the abstract it sounds like it wasn’t really a fair measure of the software’s ability. While the Dept Ed report shows no difference in test results….the software manufacturers who want to sell you this same software will show you their own research reports of improving scores. I believe that software can help a student learn…but only when paired with a professional educator who uses various ways to meet the different needs of each learner. So….software all by itself can’t do the job. Just as we can’t drop a textbook on a child’s desk and say “see you when we take the test”. We wouldn’t do that because we need educator’s have value. We shouldn’t do the same thing with software…because we know that educators have value. From what I’ve read the software wasn’t even used the way the publishers designed it to be used. The software was used on average (I think) something like 10 minutes per day. Most of the software listed in the report (various expensive purchases for schools) are designed to be used in a very prescribed manner and all of those used in the Dept of Eds report that I’ve used personally all require more than 10 minutes per day. So if we are going to use it….lets at least try to use it right and with a qualified/active teacher.
There has been lots
Submitted by Mark Richardson (not verified) on April 19, 2007 - 19:20.
There has been lots published on various blogs about this recent study. While I have not read everything there to read on this report and have just seen the abstract it sounds like it wasn’t really a fair measure of the software’s ability. While the Dept Ed report shows no difference in test results….the software manufacturers who want to sell you this same software will show you their own research reports of improving scores. I believe that software can help a student learn…but only when paired with a professional educator who uses various ways to meet the different needs of each learner. So….software all by itself can’t do the job. Just as we can’t drop a textbook on a child’s desk and say “see you when we take the test”. We wouldn’t do that because we need educator’s have value. We shouldn’t do the same thing with software…because we know that educators have value. From what I’ve read the software wasn’t even used the way the publishers designed it to be used. The software was used on average (I think) something like 10 minutes per day. Most of the software listed in the report (various expensive purchases for schools) are designed to be used in a very prescribed manner and all of those used in the Dept of Eds report that I’ve used personally all require more than 10 minutes per day. So if we are going to use it….lets at least try to use it right and with a qualified/active teacher.